King of Hearts
by Forever-Sapphire
Summary: Whenever he plays Solitaire, the King of Hearts is always the last card in place. It's not smart to rein over the hearts of others and then expect to come out first. At least, Tifa thinks so. Post AC Oneshot


**The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. **

_ForeverSapphire._

King of Hearts.

Oh wowwie, I should be editing my other stories…I think I only have about four stories that don't have errors with characteristics, or need more character evaluation. Am I being to critical? It's okay, I'll go over my other stories. Anyway, to avoid rambling – this story will have a few more chapters! This oneshot thing I have going on is just me being lazy. (Ah! Evaluation is my main problem…cutting off my stories when I feel stuck, and calling it a oneshot. xD)

I've been planning this story for quite a while. And quite frankly, I got tired of analyzing Cloud's character. I tried to have fun, since there wasn't much else I could do. Please tell me how that worked out… (I'm aware most of you won't even read this jumble of words. It might as well just serve as decoration. )

* * *

_Whenever I play Solitaire, the King of Hearts is always last. When will you learn? It's not smart to rein over the hearts of others and then expect to come out first._

Cloud wasn't exactly sure of what he'd spent the last half hour doing. He was pretty sure he had a vague idea…but then his head would_ loll_ to the side in an attempt to get him to stop. It was a repeating cycle (a redundant pair of words, the man was aware of that) a never ending, unforgivable monstrosity of a…

Computer game.

Cloud Strife stifled a yawn with the hand that wasn't being employed with the task of holding his head up. His elbow slid off the edge of the computer desk, sending his whole body flying to the side. "Gah."

Oh my. Was that drool at the corner of his lip?

Truthfully, Cloud was taking this day off to "hang out" with his family, as Denzel had put it. But they'd ditched him not too long ago to go shopping. Cloud, in all honesty, was getting a little tired in laying down the reasons why he thought cauliflower plants were also called Tatar Tots…they're both round! And have surprising after tastes when eaten with mustard…wait! How long ago had they left for the market? Were they okay? Because he'd mosey on over there and…oh. Look.

The blonde's natural frown turned into a smirk-then-frown as the evil little game roared a blinking "game over" in his face. Cloud made sure his elbow was firmly in place on his cluttered computer desk before clicking "deal" once more. The dull expression on his face upgraded to a smi-frown when it was evident that he could change the deck's design to little goldfish…Hah. I bet Denzel's YuGiOh cards can't do that…

_Booyah._

…

Jeez. Why couldn't they have taken him to the market with them? That was the whole purpose of his day off, and the "closed" sign Yuffie had so elegantly presented to him. You'd think they'd realize he could just as easily seep back into Old Cloud who avoided them by going to work every single minute because he thought he was weird and couldn't forgive his sins and every thought he had haunting his sleep and was constantly being reminded of – and –

Oh.

What if they were avoiding him? Oh. No, he was just fitting into the father role and –

…

Cloud never had such randomly fast out of character and utter disregarding thoughts in his life. Hmmm? Cloud Strife was not a thinker, or a talker. He was a doer. Mmm. Computers give off some sort of poisonous radiation, is that true?

Lord, this game had become poisoned with incoherent thoughts. Rather than suffer the fate of playing such a dreadful game through, Cloud guided the mouse over to the heading of the window. Meaningless game. Clicking on "File," he quickly went to "Deal." Though, before he could say, "double click," he was interrupted by a child's voice somewhere behind him.

"Wha?!" she asked, her beautiful eyes going wide. "No! That starts a new game, what cha doin'?" Marlene stood on the tip of her tippy toes to whisper this guidance into his ears. Well, the back of his neck. Cloud had let his blonde hair grow enough to cover his ears, something which made Tifa nag. _"How will I know when you're nervous? Your pretty little ears always turn bright pink!" _and she'd finish up with a haughty laugh, while Cloud was left to sulk. _She means well…?_

Getting back in touch with reality, Cloud blinked, and turned to face the little girl who responded, "That's….That's like giving up, you don't know what you're missing!" _Ouch. That hurt._

_Running Away._

_Again._

"Or is it that you don't know how to play? Like how you don't know the names of veg' ables? It's the same reason, huh?"

As Cloud lifted the little girl he'd grown so fond of in his lap, he realized how intuitive she really was. Cloud had spent most of his life avoiding and diverting and running away. He thought about this with a frown as Marlene took the mouse from Cloud. She shifted to sit on her knees, making poor Cloud wince. _Sneakers…hurting my…ouch._

"Oh wow, new sneakers?"

"Yeah!" the little girl had a determined look on her face as she leaned closer to the monitor, clicking away at the digital cards.

Cloud mulled over his thoughts, many of which he had a hard time organizing. None of them were 2 + 3 5. Most of them were the square root of 225. Gah. He never finished school. That shouldn't mean he couldn't answer the problem, right? He'd probably end up with a headache if he couldn't use a calculator. Marlene's shoes further drove themselves into his lap.

That's it! He was running away…

Because he was afraid of getting hurt?

Hmph. If it was that simple, then he was pretty lame in all honesty. And utterly human. Cloud sighed. Why was he revisiting old problems? He'd already figured out all this back when those Avatars rampaged through Edge. His friends were there! Even though it was his battle…he wasn't alone.

"Are you paying attention?" Marlene asked, tilting her head back to look into Cloud's eyes. Shiny and blue. And telltale green.

"_Pfft. I'd totally drown in my own eyes,"_ Cloud once told Tifa. His friend hadn't taken it seriously, or remembered where it had even come from, since they were both drunk and having a riot with their friends who made a point of regularly checking in on them. ("Y'all makin' any offspring yet?") She was just happy he was gaining some conceited self confidence, and just loosening up again. (Cloud could be really goofy when he's not too busy brooding.)

"Cloud!"

He ruffled her hair a little to show she had his full attention.

"See, the king is the only card that's allowed to go all by itself here. Aaaw, I know! That's really really sad, cause he's all lonely!"

Of course he's lonely. It's always lonely at the top. Otherwise, greatness would be extremely overrated. Cloud knew he wasn't at the top. He had friends.

_That never meant you couldn't be lonely. Lonely and alone are completely different._

"But he's not lonely for long, just cause the queen can go here. Ooh! Ooh! Cloud, you know how people say, 'opposites attract'? Well, that's like here…Ooh! Ooh! Cause the King is red, so the Queen has to be…"

"Black?" Cloud answered.

"You are correct," Marlene gasped, and rewarded her friend with a kiss.

"And look, doing this sets you up for a fall! Because lookie, you can't get what's under this pil here, alright? That's important."

Set him up for a fall? Much like wanting to start over when you have so much unfinished business. Wouldn't it just come back and bite you? That's setting yourself up for a fall. Being optimistic, and forgiving and forgetting. Cloud had seen way too much of that and was getting really tired of it. Sure he'd recover each time, slowly…but isn't there a point where you just get tired of starting over because of all it's complications?

"Stop searching for all those big answers," a feminine voice suggested as she entered the room. Both Cloud and Marlene turned to face Tifa. Cloud swiveled the chair to show his best friend the little girl sitting in his lap.

"I see you showed Cloud your new sneakers?"

"Oooh? Yup!" Marlene exclaimed happily, and shifted so that he feet were hanging off the side of the chair (much to Cloud's relief.)

"Okay, come down for lunch. Stop playing that game – it gets tiring, and so addicting! And then you regret even starting!" the woman giggled, and waved her hand airily.

"You shouldn't regret things," Cloud said quietly.

Tifa flinched. Cloud felt bad. He knew a dumb game was bringing up old memories and regrets. They were all sensitive and those thoughts were easily triggered. It was just something they had to live with. A consequence of saving the world. A side-effect of being perfect examples of Aristotle's tragic hero. One of the major points of being a tragic hero was being of noble blood. God knows what kind of man Cloud's father was. Not to say Cloud was a King. Or a hero… he didn't want to be…His life was a story in itself. Only…Cloud knew at the end of their story, the feeling of catharsis he'd get couldn't come soon enough.

"Sorry, Teef, Marlene was teaching me…" Cloud apologized. He shuffled his feet on the floor of his room. Marlene looked up, sensing a bit of tension floating about.

"It's fine. The headache you guys put me through is worth it, actually. Just hurry up or I'll make your mac and cheese spicy."

"…What?" Cloud asked, and Marlene fidgeted.

"…You know, I really don't know. Pepper…or something… I –"

"Mmm, we'll be down in a sec."

In the end, the King's fall isn't pure loss, or things would be pretty miserable. His misfortunes are not wholly deserved, and the punishment exceeds the crime. Otherwise, where's the empathy?

Tifa smiled.

Cloud managed a smile back. A natural little smirk.

"Don't worry, be happy," Marlene sang, and double clicked on each pile of cards. The King of Hearts was the last card to fall into place.

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Blah, but I really really hoped you liked it. Please review! I check my email every day to see those Bot messages, xD There's more to come, but I'm not sure when, ;-; 


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